


Pokemon Bramble: Alola Chapter Prologue

by IbaraKasen



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-04
Updated: 2016-08-04
Packaged: 2018-07-29 07:01:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7674667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IbaraKasen/pseuds/IbaraKasen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Briar, a budding psychic who recently endured the sudden maturation of his powers, reflects on the events that brought him to his new home in Alola. Facing some prophetic dreams has brought him some depression and anxiety, but maybe starting a new friendship in this unfamiliar place will give him the push he needs to face the future head-on.</p>
<p>A concept/prologue chapter to a series planned to be penned when Sun and Moon are released. Details between this and the future work may be subject to change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pokemon Bramble: Alola Chapter Prologue

                “Briar, are you done eating?” the young man’s mother asked as he walked by.

                “Yeah, I’m just going for a short walk,” he said, slipping on his shoes and walking out into the warm evening air. As much as he understood it, his body still felt surprised at how different this new region was from his old home. Back there the cold grip of winter’s last breaths was still laying over the region, but here you’d be forgiven for thinking it was summer. He was truly living in the tropics now.

                He wandered the town streets as the sun was just beginning to set, a pale orange glow starting to engulf the sky. Heading toward the one place he had memorized in his new town, he let his mind wander to the dreams he’d been having lately. Yes, the dreams.

                Ever since he was young he’s had some amount of psychic power – levitating small objects had even become something of a classroom trick when he was in school. But his powers were never very strong and never caused much of a problem…until recently.

                Just a couple of months ago there was an accident. He wasn’t feeling well, a little lightheaded and a slight headache, but he didn’t think anything of going out for a short shopping trip. As time went on the symptoms got worse until at last everything went black. Only later did he find out that his psychic power quite literally exploded, throwing several store displays and knocking down a number of shelves and resulting in a number of minor injuries to those around him. He had woken up several days later in a hospital bed.

                Finally coming to the little park near his house as the clouds began to turn pink, he walked past the last remnants of kids running home for dinner and prepared to enjoy the peace and quiet as he had the last few days. Situating himself in the shade of a tree that blocked the evening sun just perfectly, he laid back in the grass and closed his eyes, letting the sounds of the island fill his senses.

                While he was in a coma, he had a dream. It was a long and vivid dream, but despite his best efforts he could not recall it almost as soon as he woke up. What he could remember was fragmented, but he did his best to remind himself of it every day. He was standing on a sandy beach, the sky above him split directly down the middle. On one side it glowed as if on fire, with the sun shining brightly. On the other side it was pitch black, as though all the stars in the night sky had vanished, and only the cold gaze of the full moon stared down from above. On either side both the sun and the moon hung like giants in the sky, as though they were drawing closer and closer to Earth.

                The only other thing he could remember was that someone was beside him, but he couldn’t remember their face, their hair, or even if they were a boy or a girl. As much as he wanted to see their face, to see if they were somebody he knew, or if he would know them if he ever met them, there was nothing. And it truly frustrated him, bothering him to no end.

                A professional psychic had suggested that maybe the dream had been a premonition, a vision of events to come caused by his powers suddenly and violently maturing, which only furthered the distress he’d begun to feel over it. And, sensing her precious child’s mental struggle, his mother suddenly announced they were moving to an entirely different region. No doubt existed in his mind that her decision to drop everything they had and move was all because of him – that she hoped a change of scenery would alleviate his stress and lessen the grip of his sudden depression.

                In part she was right, their new island home being very calm, very serene. But at the same time he couldn’t help but feel he had also taken a step forward in whatever prophecy his dream foretold. Almost as soon as they arrived he began having nightly dreams almost reminiscent of his coma. He would be floating beneath the surface of the ocean, seeing a person’s silhouette against the light coming from the surface, stretching their hand out towards him. Again he couldn’t tell if they were a boy or a girl, or anything about what they looked like, but there was a feeling of familiarity. It was as though this was someone he knew very well, someone he cared about. These new dreams only served to revive his anxiety about the whole thing.

                He sighed, opening his eyes to see the sky awash with color as the sun continued to creep its way down the horizon. It was so beautiful and calming he couldn’t help but let a smile crawl onto his face.

                “Hey!” a voice called, catching his attention. He sat up to see a boy about his age walking up to him, a paper bag in one arm.

                “It’s going to be dark soon, you know,” he said.

                “Yeah, I must have lost track of time…” he replied. “That doesn’t explain what you’re doing out right now though… Hau, right?”

                “Yep, you remembered!” the boy said with a big smile. “And your name’s Briar, right?”

                “Yeah,” Briar said. “You and your grandfather came to greet us when we moved in.”

                “Yep!” Hau said. “It’s been a couple of weeks already, how have you been?”

                “Alright,” Briar said. “We’ve got pretty much everything unpacked and ready to go, and I’m starting to get back into my workout routine.”

                “Workout routine?” Hau asked.

                “Mostly running,” Briar said. “That and some light weights, not a whole lot.”

                “It shows, you’ve gotten a nice tan since you first arrived,” Hau said. Briar chuckled.

                “Yeah, a little bit more and I’ll be looking like you,” he said.

                “Ha ha, no way!” Hau said, laughing.

                “So, what brings you out here this late?” Briar asked.

                “Oh, I was making a run to get some malasada before the store closed,” Hau said.

                “Malasada?” Briar asked.

                “You don’t know about it?” Hau asked. Briar shook his head.

                “No,” he said. “What is it?”

                “Here, try one for yourself,” Hau said, reaching into his bag and pulling out a small pastry covered in sugar. Briar took it and looked it over for a second before shrugging and taking a bite out of it.

                “Hm, it’s like a donut,” he said. “Pretty good.”

                “Aren’t they?” Hau asked, laughing a little while pulling one out for himself. Briar swallowed the last bit of his malasada and quickly sucked the sugar off his fingers before standing up and stretching his arms.

                “Well, I guess I should be heading home,” he said.

                “Oh, before you go, there’s something I wanted to ask,” Hau said.

                “What is it?” Briar asked.

                “Those Pokémon that were at your house before, are they yours?” Hau asked. Briar shook his head.

                “No, they’re my dad’s,” Briar said. “He had more than a full team when he left to start training again, so the ones he didn’t take with him stayed with us. We couldn’t just leave them behind when we moved, so we just brought them with us…”

                “Oh, so you’re not a trainer, then?” Hau asked.

                “Not yet,” Briar said. “I was planning to start this spring but…some things happened and we moved here.”

                “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but that’s good to hear,” Hau said, smiling cheekily. “Actually, kids around our age are supposed to start the Island Trials soon. Since you’ve moved in, that means you get to do them, too.”

                “Island Trials?” Briar asked. “This is the first time I’ve heard anything about that…”

                “They’re sort of like our rite of passage here in Alola,” Hau said. “You complete the trials of an island, then you face the island’s kahuna, and then if you pass you’re allowed to go to the next island.”

                “Trials…kahuna…” Briar mumbled. “It sounds interesting, but how do we start?”

                “Don’t worry about that,” Hau said. “Grandpa and Professor Kukui will take care of things until we’re given our starter Pokémon.”

                “Alright,” Briar said. “Until then, we’ll have to hang out sometime.”

                “Sure, want to meet up tomorrow morning?” Hau asked.

                “Only if you don’t mind joining me on my run,” Briar said. “You know some nice paths through town, right?”

                “Uh, sure…” Hau said a bit apprehensively. Briar laughed and the two started walking back toward the street. After they parted ways Briar cast a look back over the park.

                _“Just my imagination?”_ he thought.


End file.
